Notes from Arrowtown. ( FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2545, 24 December 1902, Page 22

Notes from Arrowtown. ( FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

ARROWTOWN, December 18. Report credits Mr Waller Little, who rscently started hydrauliclring at Cardrona, -with an efficient plant (steel pipes 9in in diameter), with obtaining from 7oz to Soz'' per. weeK while opening out his fissfe paddock, cleaning up small patches c£ gioiin-d for- the purpose of stacking' stones. A return tike this speaks well for tbfrgi'mind, proving fhat the failure' of a number 01 now defunct dredging companies,- who put dredges upon the Cardrona; Yalley'and started work, cannot be ascribed to -the want of gold. Taking. Mr Little's paddock"as covering- a.,tenth of the area a suitable dredge might be made to clear up in the course "of a, wee!:, which would give a return of 70oz or 80oz per week. Allowing, however, that a dredge would, possibly not be able to pick up more than- two-thirds of the gold, this return would be reduced to from, say, 460z to 51oz per week. The Lone Star dredge, which has baen kept going with a good many interruptions from one cause or another, has averaged 15oz per week since the dredge started — by no means an unsatisfactory average, considering the size and capacity of the machine, with buckets of 3£ cubic feet contents. That the dredge did so well is chiefly owing to skilled handling. In any case all this goes to prove that there is a golden outlook for Cardrona, and the day may not be far distant when it will see another rush. But to make the- rush a success it is necessary that the dredges put on the ground be competent to do the work required of them, and that the companies owning- them be prepared to do some prospecting work. The Arrow Falls Company are. turning the river across a bearh,. which when completed will make the works at the face independent of' any ordinary floods, so that sluicing may go on at all times without interference from the river. The work is, an arduous one for the inert, as they have to stand up to the middle in the current, and the weather being very cold and stormy they more tli?n once were obliged ±o knock off work on account of the cold. Messrs T. Feehley and Hay Bros., who recently put a hydraulic plant "upon the Arrow River, are washing- up for Christmas. The prospects, I hear, are good. The Muddy Creek Terrace Company, Shotover, are making good headway with the opening work, a"nd will 'have a clean up in. January or February next.